The Invisible
by inuyasharbd15fan09
Summary: Inspired by the movie.SlightAU:Raven, who hears the dead, is in a race against time to save Bludhaven's hero:Nightwing! She hopes to get to him...before the others get to her first.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Yes, I'm starting up another one. I can't help it. I'm inspired at the moment. I'm trying to update 'Undefined Frame of Mind', folks. I really am. Oh, and sorry for the slight OCness you might find in this first instalment. It will fit in and make sense later on. **

**Hope you enjoy this ficlet! **

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**Summary: **

**Raven, a girl who can speak with the dead, suddenly finds herself in a race against time when she is visited by none other than Bludhaven's very own Nightwing. ****_As in, his ghost. _But what's this? He's not dead! Now Raven has to race to save Dick's life or else leave Bludhaven hero-less …and herself dead! **

**Rated M: for graphic scenes, violence, language and sexual innuendo **

**Raven/Nightwing**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

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She couldn't believe it. Her eyes never left the mark on the ground indicating where he was. 

"Dick," she whispered. Snapping out of her daze, she began to run toward the mark, ignoring the burning pain that ran up her leg with each step. She was breathless when she reached him. Wildly, she looked around.

She was alone.

Of course she would be alone. She was in a cemetery at half past two in the morning. No one would be here.

But she _shouldn't _be alone.

"Dick?!" she called out. Why wasn't he with her? She had found the mark. Cold realization ebbed into her spine. "N-No.." she chocked out the words.

It was too late.

Tears she hadn't spilled in years managed to blur her vision. Regardless of the fact that she had lost him, regardless of the shriek of the tires behind her at the entrance indicated that they had found her, regardless that she could no longer hear his voice, she dug into the grave mark and began to shovel her way through.

Car doors closed behind her.

Her cool fingers began to pick up in pace.

She wouldn't be able to reach him in time. She quickly scanned around herself and found the broken tip of a shovel. Her stomach heaved as she realized the tip of the worn tool had blood stains.

His blood.

Swallowing back the bile from coming out, she used the worn shovel to push off the dirt. She heard them call out orders to find her. To prevent her from uncovering his body. And when they had captured her…

…to kill her.

Digging furiously into the cold soil, she almost cried out when the blade hit something solid. Using her whole arms, despite the bandages, she began to push away the dirt in her way.

"Hold it right there!" The click of a pistol followed the rough command.

She froze.

"Get out of the hole right now, girl!"

She didn't budge.

"I said get!"

"I can't…" she whispered. The cold wind blew a few crumbs off of the dirt pile in front of her back into the hole. She didn't raise her eyes off of the glass case.

She could see him now.

As if she had laid her eyes on him for the first time. He wore a deep blue -almost black - body suit that covered his neck. Pieces of the garment were torn where she guessed he had his weapons. And as if holding light of its own, the emblem of a lighter shade blue bird spread its wings over his large chest and down his arms shone below her feet, flashing his alias. The blue mask on his face was the same color of his suit.

The mask, whose eyelids would not open.

The gun clicked again behind her.

Her pale hands gripped at the pile of dirt harder.

"Too bad you got your nose into the _wrong_ business, girl. You messed with us, and we're gonna finish you off like your _little_ _friend_ there."

She felt him shift in order to shoot.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. Too bad he wasn't going to be able to hear her apologize. He would never hear a thing ever again.

The gun fired.

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**A/N: this is just a foreshadow of what's to come. Or, I think will come. It all depends on you guys. Now, I need sleep. It's 2: 37 in the morning and my insomnia has finally left me. G'night! **


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Long over due update but thank you to those who reviewed. Inspiration for this story struck then left me after I did the prologue. Now, it's back. Let's get this show on the road. **

**Thanks to the following: Titan linz, Dancing through the Storm, and Angelfeet. This chapter (way late update, I know!) is dedicated to y'all. XD**

**CHAPTER ONE**

She woke and looked around herself, still lying down on her bed. It was raining. It had been raining for a week straight. She found that odd. But then again, she now lived in Bludhaven, a city that literally was haunted by the weird. For instance, Nightwing.

She rose from the bed.

Bludhaven had it's own hero. A vigilante who hadn't been caught on camera by anyone. Not really. Just blurs here and there. But by the voice of those he'd saved, this iconic figure had survived news hysteria.

The room shifted and she clutched her head.

A voice yelled. Not her own.

She heard laughter, spine chilling laughter.

Then it stopped.

She released her head and panted. These voices. They were getting worse. She really wasn't even safe in her own head anymore. As weird as that sounded, she wasn't. She rose. She wasn't going to get sleep anyway and made her way to her kitchen. She placed a pot on the stove to boil water. She glanced around her small place, the kitchen being connected to the living room, the largest room in the apartment. Dark decorations of even darker origins decorated the living room. Heavy literature books were miscelleniously placed here and there. They didn't seemed organized but to her, they were. She was currently majoring in literature. But not the common literature you'd think they'd offer in Bludhaven University.

The sticker indicator on the pot alerted her that the water was ready.

She sneaked a cup from her cup boards and poured the water. She took a packet of tea from the nearly empty box on her counter top and placed it in. she paused and braced her hand onto the counter top's edge. She bit her lip. With a foreboding feeling, she glanced at the cookie jar at the corner of said counter top. Where inside, laid her sleeping pills.

She got a headache just thinking about it.

Raven had gone to a psychiatrist since a small child.

Her mother – the father long gone as soon as he hear he'd fathered a child – had taken her to a specialist as a kid, speculating her cries of monsters and creatures in her bedroom as a case of misplaced attention hogging.

Whatever. That didn't make sense. Raven budged away from the spotlight as much as she could.

Since then, the psychiatrist had diagnosded her with a rare case of insomnia, causing her a weird psychosis of sort. The sleeping pills were the only thing that really granted sleep.

And peace from the voices.

But no – she walked away from the cookie jar and walked into her living room couch – she wouldn't take those again. They silenced said voices for a while, but then they came with a strength tenfold afterward.

And that wasn't worth it.

She took a sip from the cup.

Lighting flashed. The cup stilled at her lips. Thunder followed. She swallowed the liquid in her mouth. Robotic-ally, she placed her cup – more of a mug really – onto a small side table and leaned heavily against the couch.

She wasn't alone.

"What do you want?" she whispered, monotonously. A shadow on the corner shifted. Nothing was in the way of the light – from the lamp beside her – to cause said shadow. No furniture, not her own figure.

It was an entity.

She repeated her question. No answer. She stood. The shadow shifted again. She faced it and waited. Lighting struck and illuminated the form of a tall man, broad shouldered and very muscled. And ...in a black suit? Lighning went away and thunder struck. Not a suit, like a tuxedo suit, but... more of a type of scuba diving suit?

"Do you realize you're dead?" she tried. She maintained her voice low, void of emotion. She had to keep emotionally detached. Or they'd haunt her instead of being here for their intended purpose. Lights flashed outside then sharply followed by thunder. Only so loud as to shake the building.

It struck close.

She heard a whisper and placed a hand near the space of skin of her ear.

"I can't hear you," she clarified. That wasn't how it worked but visual aid usually helped.

The whisper got louder but she couldn't make it out still.

"What?"

Lighting struck, followed by thunder.

"_I...AM...NOT...DEAD..."_

Then the lights in her apartment went out.

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**A/N: creepy, weird, and fairly short. I know. But it has to start somewhere. This is solely for those reviewers who wanted this story continued. I hope I do good for you guys. :D thanks again! **

**- Inuyasharbd15fan09**

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	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Inspiration stuck again... like a jellyfish and it won't come off. I guess that's a good thing. ...not the jellyfish. Those hurt. Still got the burn marks that prove it. **

**Enjoy. **

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**CHAPTER TWO**

She tried to make contact when she found a candle in the cupboard in her kitchen. She asked him to come forward if he needed to say something. She had walked around the couch to stand where she had and sat down. Tucking her legs underneath herself, she had waited. And waited. And waited.

The light spilling into the small apartment room alerted her that the storm was over. She blinked. Had she fallen asleep? She stopped short. She touched her forehead. No headache.

No way.

She swallowed and steadied herself. No headache. How was that possible? She always woke with one. Shaking her head, she stood. An extinguished candle fell to the floor. A bit of the still warm wax spilled onto the floor. She cursed and picked it up. How wise of her to fall asleep with a lit candle. She placed the white candle in the kitchen sink and headed for the shower.

She quickly stripped of her pjs and wrapped a towel on herself. She tried the knobs. Nothing happened. With a near silent huff, she turned and readied herself for a wrench vs pipes showdown when she stopped.

"Why did you not come forward when I asked for you?" Her bathroom held a small tub and the toilet and sink were symmetrical with the tub. A small foot wide and wall length closet for towels and other belongings was placed near the door. The closet's door stood slightly ajar.

She spoke towards it.

Something shifted inside.

"You said something before," she continued, "You said you weren't dead. ...I'm sorry to say, that if I can communicate with you, it usually means that." Still in monotone, she side-glanced into the closet's depths. There was no way a man the magnitude of which she had seen last night, could fit in there. But in reality, entities could fit anywhere.

"_**...NO..."**_

"No? No what?"

"_**...NOT...DEAD..."**_ She breathed out. This wasn't her first interactive encounter with an entity. Her first had been at age five. A man, fully clothed in a tuxedo, was looking for his bride. Needless to say, that had freaked Raven out. But she hadn't called out to her mom. She knew she was no help. She had looked away, escaping to her room. But it appeared almost every other night. Finally, she had peeked from under the covers and had whispered that he was a ghost, and that she didn't know where his bride was. The man had stopped and given her a look of disbelief. Then, he had spoken the words that had chilled her more than any nightmare had:

"._**..HELP...ME...**_"

Bits a pieces were now foggy with age but the memory was still there. She had gone out of her five year old way and looked up the man's bride. She had survived a car crash they had both been in on their way to their honeymoon. The man had disappeared shortly after that. But Raven had a feeling it wasn't over.

She had gotten grounded for walking to the public library a block away from home. She didn't make up an excuse for herself and had sat in her room, awaiting the return of the man. He did return. Two days later. He looked defeated. Still scared, she swallowed her fear and had neared it. He thanked her for her help and had disappeared before her. And left her finally feeling the room alone.

Raven blinked. He wasn't the first thing that had tried to contact her, but he was...different.

"You still there?"

No reply.

She cursed herself slightly. She wet her lips and turned. Suddenly, her knees buckled to the floor. She landed in a slightly flooded bathroom floor. Her gaze sped up to glare at the faucet overlooking into the tub. Now it had started working. The warm water had made the room humid and goosebumps rose on her naked skin. She rushed to shut the water off. It closed with a small squeak, alerting of its rustiness.

She felt him again.

She turned.

Her bathroom mirror, about as big as a 2x4 block, was fogged up as pretty much the rest of the bathroom. But unlike the rest of the bathroom, it had a message on it:

_**DIRT-BOX-NIGHT-NOW **_

It was fresh, because the condensation beads had not began to fall down the surface of the mirror. The letters were thick, sharp, precise. Obviously, this was a man who dedicated into doing things his way, and very careful.

She repeated the letters to herself. One after the other. There seemed no obvious connection of the four letters. And she really didn't expect much, they had trouble communicating sometimes. Thoughts – if they really had them – were inconclusive and sometimes made them violent because they couldn't understand.

So the letters weren't really a bit help. Dirt? Dirt what? And box? ...perhaps he died in a box and hasn't noticed it. She turned away from it and rubbed her forehead. Right. Bath first. Then clean up. Then work.

--

"I don't understand," the old woman, white hair stringy into a bun and wearing her gardening clothes, kept the small line of five customers waiting.

"It's not on sale, ma'am. I apologize."

"But I found it in the ON SALE section of the bookstore," Raven inwardly stomped her feet and yelled at the woman. Outwardly, through half lidded eyes, she turned the book so as the woman could see its spine.

"The ones on sale have a purple sticker on it. This one doesn't have one." There. Maybe she'd get it that the book was misplaced and that it wasn't on sale.

"Then maybe someone took it off." Oh for Pete's sake!

"Fine," she growled and scanned the book's bar code. Then, scanned the bar code on her ID badge. The woman looked smug and gave the people behind her a smile. They grumbled and looked away. Anything to get the woman out of the bookstore. Just another 10 minutes on the shift then she was out for the night. "Here." She handed over the book. She looked at Raven in disbelief.

"And my bag?"

"...next!" she replied, curtly. The woman had the courtesy to apply on an offended look and reluctantly moved away from the line. The rest of the line moved on smoothly after that. Figuring the woman's discount wouldn't take out too much out of her paycheck, she stuck on her black coat and stepped out of the store, having checked out.

It was a quaint little store. Found almost on the edge of the nicer side of Bludhaven – still unmarred by its underworld – the little bookstore held books for the avid readers. Some of the main streams were inside, but mostly heavy books and college literature books. They had only hired Raven for the deep knowledge of literature and its art, for otherwise her ...peculiar social skills would have kept her jobless.

She retied the belt like bands on her waist and hugged herself.

It was getting cold. The rain wasn't helping any.

"Hey you!" She stopped. No cars seemed to be coming up or down the streets. Great. She turned and faced the man down the street. He obviously wasn't expecting her to turn around and face him. His cocky footsteps faltered at her movement, but continued on, recovering. "Little too late for a girl to out on her own, ain't it?"

Was this guy for real?

"Goodbye," she turned and with non-hurried steps continued on her way. His footsteps sped up and suddenly, he grabbed her arm. She carefully turned and stared up at him. He was stout, unshaven. But still no beard. He had a scar on his face racing from his nose to his left eye, probably the work of a rival gang.

"Where you going? It's dangerous out there. Doncha know where you live?"

"Yes. Do you?"

"..._Oh_! Haha, I get it. You all expectin' that Night bird or whatever to come to your rescue, right?"

"Please. He's a fake. A mentally unbalanced man in tights playing hero on the rooftops. Why would I want that?"

"Uh...right. S-so, if there's no hero, let me be a gentleman and escort you to your house." she gripped the man's wrist and squeezed. Not expecting the move, she broke free and walked away. "Wait a minu-"

Suddenly, he was shoved back in a painful blow. She stopped and stared back, wide eyed. The man was more confused than herself. His body had landed a feet away from her own, a knife clattering out of his reach.

"What the hell?" He looked up at her. She seemed like the obvious culprit for the hit. She turned fully to him.

Raven knew what had hurt him.

Sometimes entities were strong enough to push things around in a house. Several of her artifacts had learned that the hard way. But she had never seen one push anything with that much strength!

"What the hell did you do, you bitch? You think I'm kiddin'?"

"It wasn't me," she warned coldly.

"Right. It was Casper, huh? Was that it?" Oh...he wasn't far from the truth.

"Not Casper per say." He picked himself up walked towards her. She blinked, and her lips parted. The guy must have taken her shock to be her fear for enraging him so he continued more confidently towards her.

"Don't," she whispered.

But the entity ignored her. It dove forward and to her amazement, gave the guy a punch to the gut, followed by a perfect roundhouse kick, knocking the mugger down.

"Stop!" she almost yelled. She didn't know who or what this guy was but she knew that entities sometimes didn't know when to stop. It could actually kill the mugger. She took a step forward.

"Get away from me!" the delinquent all but yelled. She stopped and glared at the "see through" shadow that hovered over the man. The mugger with the bad punch lines ran/crawled away from her and made it around the corner without looking back at her.

"So you can manifest enough energy to hurt people...," she almost snapped at him.

"_**...DON'T HURT...HELP...**_"

"..You _helped_ people in another life time?" Now, the shadow took a bit more of a defined shape. But it wasn't enough. He was still enveloped in darkness. Some entities were like that. They couldn't "manifest" well enough for people to see them as they were before they died.

Clearly it was the case here.

Her breath stopped when she saw his facial expression change. What appeared like lips, split into a crooked smiled.

"._**...DEFINE...HELP...**_"

Then, he left her alone again.

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**A/N: Thanks again reviewers. You keep me young. Lol. Wow, I went back and there was a lot of grammar mistakes on the first chapter. Why didn't y'all say anything? Hehe...I'll fix 'em...eventually. **

**Second chapters are the worst. This is what really defines what direction a fanfiction is going. Hope I haven't killed the "illusion". :D **


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks guys. Glad you liked this little story. ****Thanks to: **

**blz1990 , Angelfeet , DeviantSupaSoldier , Regina lunaris , and Poison's Ivy . **

**Sorry for the late update. :D**

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**CHAPTER THREE**

She raised her head when she head a knock. Raven paused, closing a large volumed book nearest her. The knock came again.

"Raven? Are you there?" she released a breath she didn't know she was holding in. She rose from her couch and walked silently towards the front door. She undid the lock without peering into the peep hole and opened the old door. Her rare amethyst eyes peered downward.

"Melvin." A small blond head looked up, her murky eyes tired.

"Raven. Mind if we bunk at your apartment for the night?"

"Where's your mom?" she asked the familiar question, leaning on the door frame but allowing the door to fall back to allow the small child to walk inside. Soon afterwards, followed a small redheaded boy and his younger blond brother. Raven followed them inside with her gaze. Melvin grabbed hold of the smaller boy and turned to face her.

"Out. Hasn't been back since last afternoon." Raven scowled. Worthless mother. She didn't deserve the small kids. She sighed. Kicking the door closed, she took hold of 'Teether' as Melvin nicknamed him and leaned him onto her hip. She couldn't help the small pang of nostalgia that appeared in her chest as she held the small boy. A gesture she never personally experienced....Shaking the feeling away, she headed towards the kitchen.

"Ingested food yet?"

"Tried to cook them Mac 'n' Cheese –"

"Oh the stove?" she rose a brow. Melvin followed her steps.

"No, Crazy. On the microwave. The stove is dangerous. Anyway, I ended burning up the stuff."

"So no. You haven't eaten yet."

"No." Timmy followed his sister, the small blanket he held dear to his heart dragging behind him.

"Food?"

"Why don't you guys sit in the living room while I find something digestible in the kitchen?" Wordlessly, Melvin reached for Teether and ushered Timmy towards the room that served Raven more of a library than an actual living room. She shook her head and began to peer into her cabinets. She sighed. Just as she suspected, nothing worthy to feed the kids.

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_"..You helped people in another life time?"_

_".__**...DEFINE...HELP...**__" _

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The shadow's voice suddenly echoed in her mind. Define help? What had he meant by that? She turned and leaned her weight back onto the counter's edge, crossing her arms under her bust. First thing first.

He was having trouble communicating. That wasn't itself strange for a lot of spirits had trouble communicating. But he spoke cryptic. His messages didn't make sense. Or rather, she couldn't make sense out of them. Raven rubbed her forehead.

And those moves. Her hand paused in mid-movement. She was in no way a martial arts expert – except for her knowledge through cheap movie rentals when she had bad cases of insomnia – but she was sure that those moves were _professional_. His body moved with such fluidity it seemed flawless. The shadow had strength, being able to beat up that mugger like nothing.

And that was something else as well. The feeling that the spirit emitted when he had fought. A strange familiarity, like choreography, except this feeling of familiarity was worn. Raven's brow creased. Like he did the action on a regular basis –

"Raven?" She looked up from her thoughts and glanced down at Melvin. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," she stood straight and made her way to the fridge, apprehensively. Maybe something inside was edible. "Why do you ask?"

"You were groaning in pain. I thought you were hurt." Raven stopped and glanced back at the small girl.

"Yes...I'm fine." Melvin gave her a small cautious nod and walked back to attend her smaller siblings. Raven waited for the smaller girl to be a good distance away before she rubbed her temples. Now that Melvin had pointed it out, she did in fact _hurt_. Odd. She turned and faced the reflective surface of the slightly small fridge.

Suddenly, a shadow consumed her reflection. She spun. Nothing was behind her.

"Hello?" she whispered.

"Raven!" Melvin called out. Raven gave the kitchen a small look-around and hesitantly walked into her living room. Her face withdrew of curiosity and she quirked a brow at the small light-haired children on her couch. "I thought your television set was broken." Raven paused and looked up. The television set was in fact, on.

"I _thought_ it was."

"Well, it turned on by itself. Weird huh?" Raven raised her chin apprehensively.

"Weird. Right."

_"...In other news, firefighters rushed to the scene a few hours ago to the Marina, more specifically Dock 24, where a new shipment had barely arrived before it was sabotaged by an unknown gang. Reporter Melissa Lainez is at the scene. Melissa?"_

_"Thanks Jonathan. Both police and firefighters are giving it their all at the moment, as you can see," the camera shot on the slightly fuzzy television set, panned out from beyond the Hispanic reporter to a view of a – to some extent – burned ship surrounded by cops, CSIs and firefighters, "The ship itself is underway of being given the 'all clear'. Police have not given an official report of what was on the ship or their suspicions of who might be behind this. However we can report that a call was placed in an hour ago by an anonymous caller reporting the ship in Dock 24 was on fire. It was until the boat was safe that the police were able to deduce that some of the ship's cargo was taken. There is no word of the captain of the ship or if there was, its crew. We'll report back to you as soon as we have word of any newer news. Back to you in the studio."_

_"Thanks Melissa –"_

_"Sorry to interrupt, ladies and gentlemen," interrupted the newscaster's partner, "But it looks like Police Chief Preston Simonson is giving a report about the incident. Melissa? Can you hear us?"_

_"Yes. Yes I can. Police Chief Simonson announced that he was going to give an official report on this incident in just a few moments. There he is now," The camera panned out again and gave a view of a study older man in his Bludhaven's dark blue police uniform. He rose his hands to stop the bombardment of questions from the reporters. A silence rang out as he opened his mouth to talk. _

_"The Bludhaven Police Department have deduced the incident to the work of a local gang," he paused, "Their calling card seems to be burning what ever it is they stole from. In this instance, the ship. _

_"Chief Simonson! What was taken from the ship?!"_

_"My men are working on getting the exact list of cargo this ship carried as we speak. We will tell you once we know ourselves. "_

_"Chief! Who was it that stole the stuff and burned the ship?!"_

_"The department and I believe....we believe it to be the acts from the Wolfman Gang. The strategy of how this act was handled -" _

Suddenly, the television set turned off. Raven blinked. Huh. Weird indeed.

"What happened?" Timmy asked, blinking cutely at the gray screen.

"Your television is like you Raven. Moody," Melvin pointed out. Through half lidded eyes, she peered down at the small blond girl.

"_Thank you_ Melvin."

"No problem." She sighed. Although she didn't necessarily mind the small children, their did get bothersome from time to time. But she couldn't necessarily leave them alone. Their mother was a drug addict. She'd learned _that_ by accident once when she had returned one day to find the woman twitching in the hallway, a few feet from her apartment door. The symptoms of withdraw were written all over her. Raven knew then the woman had kids too. She heard them crying from time to time again. Raven wondered if the woman even knew her kids came into her apartment. She scowled. Probably not.

"No tv?" Timmy asked, looking up at her. Raven remained silent. The television set. It had been broken for a while now. So, what had turned it on? Her back straightened. Or rather, _who_ had turned it on?

"Why don't you guys get settled in my room? I'll bunk out here for the night." Wordlessly, Timmy helped Teether squirm out of the couch and took Melvin's hands. Together, the trio made their way around Raven towards her room.

"Good night Raven." Raven paused.

"I ran out of groceries," Melvin stopped at the doorway of her room, "I'll make some breakfast once I run out for food in the morning." The small girl gave a large smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Thanks Raven." She followed her brothers into the room. Raven turned into the living room.

"Where are you?" she unfolded her arms from underneath her bust and made her away around the couch to sit down in it. The migraine in her temples began to emerge again. _God_. She placed a slightly clammy hand on her brow and leaned her elbows on her knees. She felt the prickling sensation of being watched and made a small effort to look up and towards the same corner where the man/spirit had first manifested. "Was that you? The one who turned on my television set?"

_**"...YES..."**_ She straightened up and swallowed the pain making her eyes water.

"Why did you do that? What was your purpose?"

_**"...TO...SEE..."**_

"To see what? The report? The incident?"

_**"...YES..." **_

"Why?"

_**"....THEY..." **_

"The police?" The shadow, not currently in a defined form such as like when it had defeated the mugger out on the street, flickered, threatening to disappear. Though, she made out him shaking his head 'no'. "The reporters?" she tried again, "The gang?" The shadow seemed to stop flickering and want to solidify more. It must have taken out a lot out of him for him to have manifested enough energy to throw off that mugger and make the dead television set come back to life. She paused mentally and shook the later realization out of her mindset. "The gang?" she asked again.

_**"....YES..." **_

"What about them? Who are they?"

_**"...THEY..." **_

"They? They what? Why are they important?"

_**"...HURT....ME...."**_ she felt a small feeling of cold seep into her spine. So....this...Wolfman gang people had hurt him? _This_ man? She tried to mask her surprise and the foreboding curiosity from being exposed to him.

"Why?" The man's face solidified more and suddenly, for a second, she could make out his sharp, defined facial features. But his eyes. They were still shadowed, making his eyes eerily stand out and appear iris-less. He had strong cheekbones, and a strong sturdy chin. Nice lips. A sharp and almost sophisticated nose. She mentally rolled her eyes. What other girls might have called, handsome features.

His mouth opened to speak.

"Raven?" Raven abruptly turned and felt the man's attention turn to Melvin's pj clad small body standing near the diving doorway of the living room and the kitchen. "Who are you talking to?" Discreetly, Raven grasped the cordless phone from the coffee table in front of her and raised it up, using the couch's visual intrusiveness to hide the fact she was lying.

"I was on the phone, Melvin. Go back to sleep." She nodded and peered strangely at the general direction of the room's far corner. Then turned to go back to the safe haven of Raven's room. And with it, she seemed to take the small slip of reality with her. Honestly, Raven sometimes doubted that she was sane. Here she was, talking to "ghosts". But crazy or not , she turned to face the entity in front of her.

"Who are you?" She felt a sharp pang of caution emit from him instantly. "Wait," she mumbled, "You _can_ confide in me. I won't talk if you have something to hide. I'm here to help." He raised his head and stared squarely into her own eyes. His eyes seemed to squint and study her. And in fact, she felt she was physically being studied.

_**"....CAN'T...SAY..." **_

"You say you aren't dead," she tried again, from a different angle, monotonously, withdrawing herself, "Say I believe you aren't. How will I know you're lost then? Without a name, I can't look for you."

_**"....NOT...LOST..."**_She bit down the frown and scowl she wanted to send his way. He wasn't helping matters much.

"So you aren't lost. You aren't dead. What are you?"

_**"....KID..." **_

"The children are fine. They're asleep in my bedroom." He slowly shook his head. "What?"

_**"....NOT...THEM..." **_

"Explain."

_**"....KID...NAPPED..." **_

Abruptly, he left the room. Raven felt herself withdraw from his essences and felt her breathing become a bit labored. She placed her clammy hands on her brow again. Such strong emotions. So overwhelming. Then his final words sunk in. Kidnapped. He was kidnapped? Or rather, was? By who? She swallowed and sneaked a glance at the cookie jar on her counter.

No.

She looked away and stood hastily, making her way to the bathroom to retrieve a blanket or two for herself.

"The Wolfgang," she mumbled to herself, "What did they do to _you_? Did they..." her hand froze at the small knob that opened the small closet inside the bathroom, where she had had her second encounter with him, "Did they _kill_ you?"

* * *

**A/N: I hope you don't hate me for another cliffhanger. My apologies. But this chapter was giving away too much already. :D hope you like what this chapter did reveal though. Forgive my lack of reporter skills. There's a reason I'm not one. ^^' Anyways, this chapter is a slight longer than the ones before it. **

**Hope the pacing of this story is alright with you guys. Thanks again for even reading this. Oh, and this is a brief cameo of the kids. Not sure if I'll use them again. We'll see. **

**Till next chapter. **


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